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An Approach to Extending Human Lifespan Today

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The Future of Aging

Abstract

The goal of lifespan extension is essentially that of healthspan extension, which is the prolongation of that part of an individual’s life span that is associated with a high level of physiological function and is free from age-related diseases. This goal serves to focus our efforts on interventions designed to increase both the quality and quantity of life. Successful prolongation of the “prime of life” today requires aggressive prophylactic measures to slow the premature decline in functional capacity normally associated with aging in one or more vital physiological systems. In 2008, the pathway to longevity is not aging more slowly (because we don’t know how to do that), but aging more uniformly. This is best achieved by identifying one’s “weakest link” as soon as possible and intervening early to forestall the onset of age-related disease. Technology is currently available to accurately and economically measure many functional biomarkers and health risk indicators. For most of these biomarkers, normal reference ranges associated with optimum health and youthful vitality are known. Thus, it is now possible to monitor these biomarkers for the purpose of identifying premature (accelerated) declines in functional capacity on a system by system basis. In many cases, when premature functional decline or risk factors are identified early enough, a carefully designed and administered therapeutic intervention program can help to reestablish and maintain youthful homeostatic balance and significantly delay the onset of frank disease. Specific interventions necessary to achieve this will likely include a combination of diet, exercise, antioxidants, herbs, vitamin and mineral supplements, drugs, and hormone replacement therapy, and many factors relevant to such interventions are reviewed and discussed here in some detail. Such interventions together with ongoing monitoring of more than 250 biochemical and physiological indicators of health status, function, and aging should result in lifespan extension through more uniform aging.

C.B. Heward is deceased

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Acknowledgements

Dr. Heward agreed to write this chapter approximately 1 month before being diagnosed as having Stage IV esophageal cancer, which claimed his life less than three months later. During the extremely short time available, Dr. Heward wrote almost all of the text of this chapter and assembled its supporting information, but was not able to put the chapter into its final form. To accomplish the latter, his colleague, Dr. S. Mitchell Harman, spent many painstaking hours consolidating, reorganizing, and polishing the material into essentially the form that appears here. The Editor-in-Chief performed final editing and assembled the bibliography from several raw reference lists and reference fragments provided by Dr. Heward. Unfortunately, under the circumstances, not every reference intended for this chapter by Dr. Heward could be located and incorporated by press time, and figures had to be replaced by descriptions in most cases, but what remains is believed to fully represent what Dr. Heward intended for this chapter. The Editors deeply appreciate Dr. Heward’s extraordinary dedication to this chapter and Dr. Harman’s extraordinary assistance with its presentation, and are extremely saddened by the fact that Dr. Heward was never able to see his chapter published in its final form.

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  1. Kronos Science Laboratory, Phoenix, AZ, 85018, USA

    Christopher B. Heward

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  1. Christopher B. Heward
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  1. Intervene Biomedical, LLC, Box 478, Norco, CA, 92860, USA

    Gregory M. Fahy

  2. BioTime, Inc., 1301 Harbor Bay Parkway, Alameda, CA, 94502, USA

    Michael D. West

  3. Institute of Molecular Biology Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry Young Hall, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, 90095-1569, USA

    L. Stephen Coles

  4. Critical Care Research, Inc., 10743 Civic Center Drive, Rancho Cucamonga, CA, 91730, USA

    Steven B. Harris

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Heward, C.B. (2010). An Approach to Extending Human Lifespan Today. In: Fahy, G.M., West, M.D., Coles, L.S., Harris, S.B. (eds) The Future of Aging. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-3999-6_7

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